Original Italian title: either Reazione A Catena (Chain Reaction) or Ecologia Del Delitto (Ecology Of A Crime)
Other alternate titles: See below.
NTSC Running Time: 84:03
Cinematography and Directed by Mario Bava
Written by Mario Bava, Fillipo Ottoni and Giuseppe Zaccariello; from a story by Franco Barberi and Dardano Sacchetti
Produced by Giuseppe Zaccariello
Starring: Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, and Laura Betti
Body Count: 13
Availability: Region 1 DVD from Image as Twitch Of The Death Nerve; from Anchor Bay as part of The Mario Bava Collection Volume 2 as Bay Of Blood
BBFC Status
Why it's a Nasty: Cuz it's really fucking violent.
What was cut: When originally submitted for classification on April 6, 1972 as A Bay Of Blood (the title under which it appears on all BBFC sanctioned releases), this film was rejected. After being released as Blood Bath by Hokushin Video and making the Nasties list, A Bay Of Blood was awarded an 18 certificate on March 18, 1994. Four of the murder scenes were trimmed to varying degrees, totaling PAL 43 seconds.
Current UK status: On August 31, 2010, A Bay Of Blood once again received an 18 with an additional 4 seconds of footage, lowering the cuts to PAL 39 seconds.
UK Availability: It looks like you can import American releases, but the most recent 18 cert version is a Region 2 DVD from Arrow Video.
Blood Bath was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.
A Note About Titles: Sources differ on the actual title of this film. It went under several monikers while still being produced, the best known of these being Ecologia Del Delitto, Reazione A Catena, and Antefatto. While its' title when it became a Video Nasty was Blood Bath, and the title A Bay Of Blood is both appropriate and accepted as an "official" title, I'm amazed the whole retitling debacle wasn't solved once and for all when some genius came up with Twitch Of The Death Nerve. I'm going with that one. I like it.
Take off that silly hat and stand tall. Mario Bava just walked in. What'd he do? He was critical to the development of the American slasher film in 1971, with a film that has so many titles no one knows what the real one is anymore...or if it ever really had one.
Countess Donati (Isa Miranda) rolls through her mansion in the dead of night...until she is waylaid and hung by a mustachioed man who is faking her suicide. A quick ending for a giallo, until the killer is himself stabbed to death by someone unseen. Thus begins the bloodthirsty wormturning mini-saga of (soap) operatic proportions.
With this opening salvo, Bava has such fun with the giallo conventions, making us think that it won't be a giallo at all by revealing the killer's face in the first scene, then using our confusion against us to strike when most effective for the audience.
So why did this film, otherwise a footnote compared to other of Bava's films, have such an impact on the American slasher film? Conceived by Bava and actress Laura Betti as an excuse to work together again after the previous year's Il Rosso Segno Della Follia (The Red Sign Of Madness, released as Blood Brides in the UK and Hatchet For The Honeymoon in the US), the story is nothing more than a framing device for gore murder sequences, with a shock ending that seems almost unreal. This film is the direct antecedent of Friday The 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street. It's mean, violent, and unrepentant. It's a damn good portrayal of some of the baser aspects of human nature.
The setting (woodsy...or so you think, Bava was so good that he made the sparsely wooded location seem a wild forest through miniatures and masterful camera operation) and the gimmick (almost every character to step on screen being murdered with liberal gore) became a cliche of horror films, especially American horror films, with the 1980 release of Sean Cunningham's Friday The 13th. The next year, Friday The 13th Part 2 lifted two scenes wholesale from Twitch Of The Death Nerve: a hatchet to the face and a couple making love impaled on the same spear, done almost shot-for-shot as Bava had brought to the screen ten years before. The arrival of some dumb teenagers who only care about drugs and sex in the second reel of Twitch also provided inspiration, inspiration that B-filmmakers are still running with today. Had it been done before? Sure, of course, but this is Mario Bava we're talking about, and even on a mediocre day (which this most certainly was), Bava knew how to bring it on home. There's no point to this film save one: gory murders. That's the only reason we're here. One of the taglines above says it and means it: 13 Characters, 13 Murders...the surprise being who's behind that last one. The 14th? You gotta see it to find out.
Track this one down. Turn down the lights, roll a couple fatties or crack a nice chilled red, and watch the treachery and claret flow. And if you've got rich relatives with a fat tract of land, let someone else have it. You might not get rich, but you'll hold on to your life. Just another piece of useful advice that I know I'll be following. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
Original Italian title: La Montagna Del DioCannibale
Other alternate titles: Mountain Of The Cannibal God, Slave Of The Cannibal God
NTSC Running time: 102:47 (restored version)
Directed by Sergio Martino
Written by Cesare Frugoni and Sergio Martino
Produced by Luciano Martino
Starring: Ursula Andress, Stacy Keach, Claudio Cassinelli, and Antonio Marsina
Body Count: 16
Animals Deliberately Killed: 2 (a lizard and a monkey)
Availability: Uncut Region 0 DVD from Blue Underground.
BBFC Status
Why it's a Nasty: Genuine animal cruelty, sexual deviance, and CANNIBALISM.
What was cut: The original X-certificate theatrical release (certified September 14, 1978) ran 96:15 and contained none of the animal violence. It is unclear whether the original Video Nasty was this X version or a more complete, imported cut. The film was awarded an 18 certificate for home media on March 26, 2001 after 2:06 of animal cruelty was cut.
Current UK status: A slightly longer cut (PAL 92:47 compared to the 2001 PAL 92:26) was certified 18 on July 7, 2009.
Availability: Region 0 DVD from Blue Underground, which I have on good authority from some British friends is not the 18 cert version, but fully uncut.
While we have already screened Apocalypse Domani, which (being Italian and featuring cannibalism) is considered a part of the Cannibal Boom trend, that film was not much akin to the others of that short-lived but still much-remembered movement. La Montagna Del Dio Cannibale is much more in keeping with other Cannibal Boom films.
Susan Stevenson (Ursula Andress) lands in New Guinea searching for her husband, Henry. She is met by her brother Arthur (Antonio Marsina), who takes her to the local authorities...who are done looking and want nothing to do with her. Susan will not give up, and enlists the help of Henry's colleague and friend, Professor Edward Foster (Stacy Keach), an intrepid jungle explorer who knows his way around the local wilderness. Edward knows that Henry has headed for a sacred and cursed mountain on a small island nearby, and Susan convinces him to take them there. But both Susan and Edward have hidden motives for the journey, and both will stop at nothing to reach the mountain...a mountain that still shelters a primitive tribe of cannibals!
In 1972, Umberto Lenzi made Il Paese Del Sesso Selvaggio (aka Deep River Savages, which also made the Nasties list), which predates the other Italian cannibal films by five years, but set the tone for what came to be called the Cannibal Boom. 1977 saw Ruggero Deodato join in with Ultimo Mondo Cannibale (aka The Last Cannibal World, but probably best known as Jungle Holocaust), and Emanuelle E Gli Ultimi Cannibali (aka Emanuelle And The Last Cannibals, and the more misleading alternate title Trap Them And Kill Them) was my favorite cuddly pornographer Aristide Massaccesi's signature fusing of cannibal exploitation with the recurring soft porn Black Emanuelle character played by Laura Gemser (note the misspelling that distinguishes the Gemser character from the popular French nymphomaniac). Hot on the heels of Lenzi, Deodato, and D'Amato came Sergio Martino.
Italy is home to some of the most original and visionary directors of world cinema: Dario Argento, Federico Fellini, Michaelangelo Antonioni, Mario Bava, Sergio Leone, Lucio Fulci (some might argue with me on that last one...to which I reply with a screening of Paura Nella Citta Dei Morti Viventi and several slaps to the face). Unfortunately, for every one of these talents, there is a Bruno Mattei, a Claudio Fragasso, a Sergio Martino: guys whose only talent is for copying other successful films because there is a paycheck attached...which comes with career longevity, apparently, since Martino has been working steadily since 1969. He made some well regarded gialli (Il Tuo Vizia E Una Stanza Chiusa E Solo Io Ne Ho La Chiave, released in English speaking countries as Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key starring exploitation darling Edwige Fenech, and I Corpi Presentano Tracce Di Violenza Carnale [which translates to The Bodies Bear Traces Of Sexual Violence], which was sold in English markets under the wildly misleading title of Torso. A better title would have been Rip-off Of Frenzy With A Lot Of Naked Chicks And No Gore. But whatever.), and whatever else studios would pay him to make. He's competent...but not a visionary.
Mountain Of The Cannibal God is at heart an old-school adventure film. The best thing about it is Stacy Keach, who is incredible. The animal cruelty is a lizard gutted and a monkey fed to a python. (Martino tries to deny any cruelty on his part in a DVD extra, which is soon followed by a frame-by frame analysis that proves this to be bullshit. What a weiner. Deodato did much worse in Cannibal Holocaust, and while he may be ashamed of it today, at least he doesn't try to weasel out of the responsibility.) The monkey sequence is REALLY hard to watch, as you can see the terror in its' eyes as the python slowly squeezes it to death. Riveting, frightening, a test of nerves and will. If none of the above sounds good to you, I should probably mention that Andress is stripped nude, tied to a stake, and two female cannibals rub honey all over her. James Bond does not come to her rescue...but she might survive. I ain't tellin'. You'll have to find out for yourself.
That's all for now, my friends, and I'll probably be away for a while. I'm working long hours and will welcome another daughter in just a few days...but don't worry, I won't forget about you. I'll leave a light burning and some sleazy VHS cassettes in case you drop by. And when you're in the jungle, always do what your guide says. Otherwise you might step in a bear trap...or worse. I'll do the same. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
WHAT HE DOES TO YOUR NERVES IS ALMOST AS FRIGHTENING AS WHAT HE DOES TO HIS VICTIMS!
NTSC Running time: 93:43
Directed by Dennis Donnelly
Written by Robert Easter, Ann N. Kindberg, and Neva Friedenn
Produced by Tony DiDio
Starring: Cameron Mitchell, Wesley Eure, Pamelyn Ferdin, Nicolas Beauvy, Marianne Walter
Body Count: 7
Availability: Uncut Region 0 DVD from Blue Underground
BBFC Status
Why it's a Nasty: Violence against women.
What was cut: Excisions totalling around 6 minutes was cut from the X-certificate version released theatrically, cutting footage from all of the murders and the bathtub scene. The Toolbox Murders was finally awarded an 18 certificate for video on February 24, 2000 after 1 minute 46 seconds of cuts to the nailgun sequence.
Current UK Status: 18 Certificate version on Region 2 DVD from Cornerstone Media. The Toolbox Murders was seized, but escaped prosecution.
The time: the late 1970s. The place: San Fernando Valley, California.
An unseen figure pilots a Mercedes aimlessly, an evangelical preacher blasting from the sound system. Tooling past an auto dealership, we get flashbacks of a dead girl falling out of a wrecked car. The figure drives to an apartment complex, removes a toolbox from the trunk, and ruffles the hair of a passing child while making their way into the building. Once inside, our killer murders a robed woman with a drill, another with a hammer. The toolbox murders have begun...
Although it claims to be based on true events that happened in 1967, this is more exploitation gimmickry. No related "true story" has surfaced. The only theatrical feature from television director Dennis Donnelly, The Toolbox Murders uses up its' gruesomeness in the first half hour, leaving the remainder of the picture for psychological suspense and detective work.
But what an opening salvo it is. The murderer's first spree is gruesome, though not as graphic as one might think, with cutaways and blood flying up from off camera providing the visceral thrills. He kills three in rapid succession, then vanishes into the night. A brief police procedural scene follows, then we are treated to the reaction of the neighbours, mainly those of the Ballard kids, Laurie (Pamelyn Ferdin) and her brother Joey (Nicolas Beauvy). And then we reach the meat of the film, the reason why The Toolbox Murders is so well regarded among exploitation horror fans, the centerpiece sequence that is still censored in the UK.
We've already seen this girl, briefly, during the first murder sequence, dancing in her underwear in her apartment window. The girl is played by Marianne Walter, a model in her first acting role, who brought a level of talent to the proceedings that the other female victims did not. Where they were wooden and unbelievable, Walter is aware and animated. The scene required her to go through different emotional states, is both a sex and a death scene, and she does it entirely in the nude. The editing, music, and performances collide to become more than the sum of the parts and stand as powerful cinema even today. From masturbating in the bath (the film is kind to both character and audience in allowing her to finish) to confusion as the killer enters, she displays the real conundrum one would face in that situation: do I defend myself or cover up? She does both, but to no avail, getting hit several times with bolts from a nailgun and collapsing on a table in front of a large framed glamour shot...of herself. My words don't do it justice. It's a great piece of film.
It's also the last really exciting bit in the movie...and there's an hour left. Laurie Ballard gets kidnapped by the killer, and he's batshit crazy, but the remaining drama, suspense, and detective work, even the long-time-coming climax and resolution are dulled. Much like David Cronenberg's Scanners did five years later, the most impressive sequence arrives too early, leaving the rest of the film seem unimportant. It's the cinematic equivalent of premature ejaculation. This is why porno directors make great horror films...and sometimes people from horror films do great in porno. Cinematographer Gary Gravers and poster-girl Marianne Walter both found more success in the adult film world, Gravers as cinematographer and director, Walter as an actress (as Kelly Nichols she won a Best Actress award for her work on 1983's In Love) and then as a hairstylist and makeup artist (for anyone reading this who might want to see some of her work without digging through old porno bins, she did styling for Sublime's "Wrong Way" video, and she did a damn good job). Graver died in 2006, but Walter is still working and still proud of her work on The Toolbox Murders. And good on her for that.
Most of the cast and crew is not so busy these days, it seems. Pamelyn Ferdin has largely given up acting and is active in the animal rights movement (I'm still gonna watch uncut cannibal films, Pamelyn. Sorry). Dennis Donnelly has fallen off the map...but he did work with a guy I know on a film called Terminal Velocity back in the 1990s, so I might be able to get some more info on him. One guy who makes an appearance who I've deftly avoided mentioning until now is Wesley Eure, best known as "the cute one" on the TV series Land Of The Lost. His performance: average. Not really great, but not bad either. He's perfect for television. So was a lot of the crew. The Toolbox Murders seems like a TV movie with more blood and nudity. In fact, the only main crewmember who seems to be working regularly these days is writer Ann Kindberg, who is currently producing Private Practice for ABC. I hope she is as proud of this film as Marianne Walter. She certainly should be.
Have I told you everything you could ever know or want to know about The Toolbox Murders? The answer is: fuck no. I'm no all-knowing repository of trivia, just a dude who's done a tiny amount of research. Not only do I want to inform the reader, I hope you all get excited about this stuff and do some research of your own (and yes, renting Kelly Nichols movies counts as "research"). And remember, when you lock your door at night, turn the deadbolt. That stupid chain thing can easily be cut by a loony in a ski mask with a toolbox. I'm triple locking my house tonight. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
I haven't seen a Nasty in over two months. Yes, it's getting to me.
Due to numerous family and working commitments, my cinematic enjoyment time has shrunk to nearly nothing. I get a chance to see one film a week on average, and while the allure of vintage gore, girls, and gross exploitation is overwhelming, being near exhaustion makes the amount of research involved for each piece seem like a Herculean task.
Am I a whiny bitch? Oh yeah. Do I feel that I am shirking a duty that I voluntarily shouldered? Uh-huh. Do I feel totally guilty even though I have no deadline and answer to no one but myself? Yup. Did Joe D'Amato have anything to do with the script for Pieces? I still don't know, but someday I will.
What I know for certain is this: the game will soon change, I've got a backlog of unwatched Nasties and related censorship martyrs to choose from, and there's too much at stake here for me to wuss out now.
At stake? Nothing that exists outside my own head, and while that may not mean fuck-all to anyone else, it is of tantamount importance to myself. And I'm excited. Because there's no fluff here, no Hollywood, mainstream, saccharine bullshit. Some of these films are shit. Others will scorch the minds of the unworthy and leave them screaming for a return to sanity. Either way, I think they're worth seeing at least once.
So I'm still here, I haven't forgotten, and I'll be back with the goods real soon. And you can count on that. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
THE BLOODIEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED IN FRONT OF A CAMERA!!
THE FILM THAT COULD ONLY BE MADE IN SOUTH AMERICA...WHERE LIFE IS CHEAP!
Original Film: The Slaughter (1971)
NTSC Runtime: The Slaughter - 74:19; Snuff - 5:33. Total NTSC Runtime: 79:52
The Slaughter
Written and Directed by Michael Findlay
Produced by Jack Bravman
Cinematography by Roberta Findlay
Starring: Mirtha Massa, Clao Villanueva, Enrique Larratelli, Aldo Mayo, Margarita Amuchastegui
Snuff
Directed by Simon Nuchtern
Produced by Allan Shackleton
Body Count: The Slaughter - 15; Snuff - 1. Total Body Count: 16
US Availability: Uncut Region 0 DVD from Blue Underground.
BBFC Status
Why it's a Nasty: Gore. And hype. Lots and lots of hype.
What was cut: No cuts, though the film was banned as a Nasty.
Current UK status: The uncut version of Snuff was awarded an 18 certificate on May 22, 2003...although the film has yet to see an "official" UK release.
UK Availability: Uncut Region 0 DVD from Blue Underground. Snuff was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.
Confused by the credits up there? Good. You should be, or Snuff isn't doing its' job. I would like to note that all of the footage in the trailer above is from The Slaughter, not Snuff.
Most of us have heard the urban legend of the "snuff film" by now. If you haven't, it's pretty simple: a "snuff film" is a genuine murder perpetrated on camera for the explicit purpose of making money off of the film. No such film has ever turned up, anywhere, ever. Yes, death has been captured on film before, be it historical records of executions (Saddam Hussein, for example), accidental (news footage of 9/11, the Zapruder film), a private record of a monster's crimes (Russell Williams), or televised suicide (Christine Chubbuck, R. Budd Dwyer). But as a for-profit filmmaking venture, the snuff film does not exist. It's great as a plot device for horror and thriller films, but the reality is that it just wouldn't be worth the trouble. It's easier (and also, legal) to just make pornography. Snuff films do not exist. But if that's the case, why is the myth so persistent?
It all starts with this film.
In 1971, Michael and Roberta Findlay, a husband/wife filmmaking team headed down to Argentina and shot a cheap movie loosely based on the Manson Family murders. Titled The Slaughter, it's a cheapjack ($30,000) flick that doesn't have much going for it. The murders are poorly done, mostly gunshots and stabbings with minimal gore. There is some nudity and minimal sex, but if the measurement of success in cinematic sex is the stimulation of the viewer, then the sexual scenes of The Slaughter are failures. (Interestingly, my wife was listening without watching when I began the film and thought that the opening sequence of violence was pornography based on the sound. If you take a look at Michael Findlay's filmography, he specialized in "roughies", an early exploitation genre that emphasized violence during, and sometimes replacing, sex..) The Slaughter had a very small theatrical run (something like three theatres played it), and is a disjointed and poorly written mess (although the cinematography is good), with many of the trademarks of low-budget films: no on-location soundtrack, shoddy editing and acting, terrible special effects, and overuse of "event" footage because a) they had it, and b) it pads the running time (in this case, the event is carnivale), a technique that reached it's zenith (or nadir) in another Nasty, Bruno Mattei's Zombie Creeping Flesh.
In specifics, The Slaughter is about a cult leader called Satan (pronounced "suh-TAHN") and his four-girl army of killers. They want to kill the child of a German rich kid named Horst for reasons that are never explained. It's just an excuse to have them kill a pregnant woman because that's what the Manson Family did. The Slaughter ends with an attack on Horst's mansion by Satan's girls.
At least, I think it does. I've never seen the end of it, and no one seems to recall what happens after Angelica (Margarita Amuchastegui) stabs the pregnant belly of Terri (Mirtha Massa) in the original cut of the film. Just how does it end? (Seriously, if anyone out there has the skinny on that, shout it out in the comments down there, I would really love to know.)
The reason we don't know (and the reason we're even talking about this at all) is due to yet another unscrupulous distributor, in this case a guy named Allan Shackleton. Time for a bit of history.
In the early days of cinema, "personal hygiene" films traveled the American landscape. Kroger Babb went across country with sensationalized melodramas like Mom And Dad and She Shoulda Said "No!". Shown to sexually segregated audiences under the guise of "educational films", each screening was presented by "Elliot Forbes", who gave lectures to the audience about STDs (in the case of Mom And Dad), or whatever evil menace the films were demonizing, selling printed matter on the subject to the audience to boot. This was before there was a television in every home, everyone in town saw these things. And it wasn't one town at a time, either. There'd be dozens of towns in different areas featuring the show at once, each with its' own "Elliot Forbes" (with the exception of theatres in predominantly black neighborhoods. In that case, you got Jesse Owens. I'm not kidding, it really was Olympic runner Jesse Owens). Admissions were twenty-five cents, with the informative brochures sold at the shows going for another fifty cents. The total take per town per week sometimes went as high as $32,000. You do the math. Babb made a mint.
Mom And Dad is a film about the dangers of not giving your children proper sex education. It's a melodrama about the dangers of unprotected sex, like teen pregnancy and venereal disease...which was an excuse to show footage of a birth and disease-ridden sexual organs. The film was wildly successful and did huge business. It was a gimmick, designed to "exploit" the unique material the film presented. Voila! Exploitation film was born. (Mom And Dad was not the first such film...but it was the most successful, eventually taking somewhere in the neighbourhood of $100,000,000 over its' 30-year run through theatres and drive-ins.)
The "personal hygiene" film eventually gave way to burlesque films, nudie-cuties, roughies, and so on. A producer named David F. Friedman got his start playing "Elliot Forbes" with a traveling Mom And Dad show. He went on to make (you guessed it) exploitation films, teaming up on several occasions with Herschell Gordon Lewis. Friedman's name is on two Nasties: Blood Feast and Love Camp 7, both as producer and actor, and he came out of retirement to re-team with Lewis in the early 21st century to exploit (there's that word again) nostalgia for their early gore films with some new sequels to both Blood Feast and 2000 Maniacs (although they sadly did not revisit their nudie-cutie days and resurrect Lucky Pierre). Friedman is often quoted as saying "Sell the sizzle, not the steak", meaning that success in the world of exploitation films meant that most of the work was done before anyone saw the film being promoted.
Allan Shackleton knew what Friedman did: That what is actually in the film doesn't matter as much as what you make people think is in the film. It is that "carnival barker" mentality that has produced some of the most memorable exploitation movies of all time, and Shackleton gave Snuff a place in that pantheon.
Shackleton had acquired the rights to The Slaughter through his Monarch Distribution company. But he didn't know what to do with it...until a naive acquaintance mentioned the film and mistook it for something it wasn't: genuine. Shackleton played up the idea, though he never came right out and said anything in the picture was real. He started putting out press releases, promoting his acquisition as a bona-fide South American atrocity (remember, the Findlay's shot The Slaughter in Argentina with local talent). Michael Findlay got wise to Shackleton right away, recognizing the film the distributor was alluding to was his own. After nearly blowing the secret in an interview, Shackleton paid Findlay to keep quiet and kept promoting. He hired director Simon Nuchtern to shoot a fake murder that would appear to be genuine, then tacked it on to the end of The Slaughter, removed all credits aside from the opening title card, and retitled the whole thing as Snuff. (Please note, if you have not already, that I do not consider this one film, but two, and when I refer to Snuff I am discussing only the fake murder footage shot at Shackleton's behest.)
Shot in 1975 over the course of one afternoon in Carter Stevens' porn studio for $10,000 (a third of The Slaughter's entire budget), Snuff shows what purports to be the crew of The Slaughter finishing up for the day. The "director" and a female crew member start whispering about how the gory scene they just shot turned them on. He suggests they have sex on one of the beds and she (as only a woman in a 1970s exploitation film would) agrees, as long as the others are leaving. The crew instead keeps filming, the "director" produces a knife, and the woman is killed in a brutally gory fashion. But my (nor any) description will not replace the actual experience of seeing if for yourself. So click the link below. It leads to a very informative discussion of the sequence (referred to in that article as "The Snuff Coda"), particularly regarding the female crewmember who is helping with the murder. It also contains Snuff in its' entirety. I urge you to click the link and see the film. Snuff is the real attraction, and I offer it here so that you may satisfy your curiosity without having to sit through The Slaughter to see it. After all, this is why we bought our tickets, right?
The first 11 seconds of that clip is the last bit of The Slaughter that we see, the remaining 5:33 is the whole of Snuff. As you can see, it is obviously faked. Not only is it easy to see past the illusion of the effects, but any genuine snuff film would have to be done in one take, which this is not. Multiple camera angles and cuts belie the truth: this is a staged event done with a realistic flavor. But that doesn't matter. Shackleton's work was done. The film was released to a furor of protest, first from planted picketers paid by Shackleton, then from genuinely outraged citizens who didn't stop to realize that if the film was indeed real it wouldn't be shown in commercial theatres. (But hey, it was the 70s, they were probably to high on coke to do much thinking anyway.) The film made money, became notorious, and cemented the notion that sleazebags with cameras will kill innocent girls for black market profit.
And that's how you create an urban legend. 35 years later, people still think such films exist. Show Snuff to a friend. See if you can make them think it's real. Be your own exploitation producer and keep the game alive. Sell the sizzle, not the steak.
It's been lovely spending time with you again. I hope you are happy, safe, and well. And even though we're sure these movies aren't real, I'd still avoid balding guys in "VIDA ES MUERTE" t-shirts. Best to be on the safe side. And that's advice I'll follow. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
Directed by Rene Cardona, with additional scenes directed by Jerald Intrator
Written by Rene Cardona & Rene Cardona, Jr.
Produced by Guillermo Calderon and Alfredo Salazar
Starring: Jose Elias Moreno, Carlos Lopez Moctezuma, Armando Silvestre, Norma Lazareno
Body Count: 11, plus a gorilla. (It's a guy in a suit, maybe the worst film gorilla I've ever seen.)
Availability: Uncut Region 1 DVD from Something Weird Video (as a double feature with Feast Of Flesh)
BBFC Status
Why it's a Nasty: Sexual assaults and (what else?) gore.
What was cut: Unspecified cuts were made to the original cinema version (certified X on March 26, 1974). Subsequent video versions certified 18 on May 19, 1999 and again on June 24, 2002 were pre-cut before being submitted for classification.
Current UK Status: An uncut Region 2 DVD from Redemption was rumored to be released in 2007 uncut...although the BBFC hasn't certified the uncut version and it is not listed on the Redemption website. The reviews I have found of the Redemption DVD (of which there were two) were written before the alleged release
Availability: 18 certified version on Region 2 DVD from Film 2000. The Redemption disc appears to have been mooted. Night Of The Bloody Apes was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.
Remember that Christian Slater movie where he had a baboon's heart? This is what really happened.
When Dr. Krallman (Jose Elias Moreno) learns that his son's condition is inoperable...he decides the time is right for an operation! Meanwhile, wrestler Lucy Ossorio (Norma Lazareno) critically injures her opponent by tossing her from the ring. Julio Krallman (Agustin Martinez Solares) survives his father's radical procedure, his body accepting the heart of an ape, stolen from the local zoo. Heading up the zoo investigation: Lucy's boyfriend, Lieutenant Arturo Martinez (Armando Silvestre). The cops think the gorilla is still on the loose. But what's really out there is much more horrifying: Julio, with an apeface and a raging, confused libido, transformed into a beast by his father's medical meddling!
Julio prowls the streets, murdering men and clumsily attempting to mate with women, an enterprise he doesn't seem to be any good at. (He may succeed at one point, but we don't see it and the victim [understandably] doesn't mention it.) His father's English-dubbed voice keeps calling him "Joo-lee-oh", which is laughable for its' ignorance. There's lots of terrible gore and gratuitous nudity, apparently shot for foreign markets like the US by Jerald Intrator. And without those elements, there would really be no reason to watch it...unless you love wrestling that much.
The wrestling isn't anything spectacular, but I'm sure it was more than adequate for the Mexican audiences of 1969, who devoured anything that featured the sport. Cardona had done well earlier in the decade with Las Luchadoras Contra La Momia (Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy), and before that he pitted Santa Claus against The Devil Himself in 1959's Santa Claus. Campy, campy.
Is there anything special about this film? Not really. It's a rehash of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with gore, girls and gorillas. Fun and unintentionally funny, but I can't quite bring myself to recommend this one. If you think John Waters has refined taste, you'll love it.
These older ones don't give me a whole lot to say. Three releases by Something Weird, and only the first (Blood Feast - see Video Nasty #1) gave me enough literary fuel for a decent entry. I'm not a huge fan of the 1960s. It's like looking at a junior high annual: it got you where you are now, but that doesn't mean you need to revisit it. There's one more from that odd decade on the list...but it's a doozy: Love Camp 7, a Nazisploitation film that a fellow Nasty completist has rated as the Nastiest Nasty of them all. I can't wait. Bring it.
In other news, the BBFC has rejected another recent torture-themed film, The Bunny Game, for classification of any kind. While The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) has been passed at 18 after several cuts, appeals and addressing the issue of cuts for The Bunny Game has yet to transpire. Further bulletins as we get 'em.
Until next time, if you run into a guy with a horrible scar on his bare chest who looks and sounds just like a monkey, I recommend stabbing until he stops. Paranoia is always there for you. And so am I. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
Two nights ago, I curled up in bed and watched Amer (French for "bitter"), a giallo-inspired nightmare with very little dialogue and stunning visuals. The film is broken into three sections, one for each stage of the protagonist's life. We meet Ana as a girl of about 8, living a terrified existence in a sprawling estate with her mother, father, the mysterious Graziella...and two corpses. We meet her again in adolescence, walking into town with her cold-blooded mother, as her awareness of sexuality awakens. The second half of the film concerns Ana's return to the family estate, now fallen into disrepair, as a black-gloved figure begins to stalk the grounds.
From the above description, I wouldn't be surprised if you underestimate this film. The story is almost nonexistent, and the lack of dialogue only enhances the dreamlike, unnerving qualities. Bright colors, extreme closeups, muddled motivations, zero exposition - Amer is not like any other film, though it does pay homage to the best of giallo cinema. The oversaturated colors of Argento, the woman who knows too much of Bava, the too-close closeups of Fulci (including a knowing wink to the razor murder of Daniela Doria's character The New York Ripper). It's well worth seeking out, a truly unique cinematic experience.
Around the same time I was enjoying Amer, we lost a great artist. Musician and actor David Hess passed away October 7, 2011 at the age of 69. Star of two Video Nasties (The Last House On The Left and House On The Edge Of The Park), Hess began his career under the name David Hill, his first single was "All Shook Up", a year before Elvis Presley scored a #1 hit with the same song. This was not the only time in his career that Hess would originate a song that found later success with another artist: Pat Boone landed near the top of the charts performing "Speedy Gonzales", a track first recorded and co-written by Hess (this time under the nom de rock David Dante). He continued to record music for the rest of his life, composing and performing the music for Last House, and contributing to the soundtrack of Eli Roth's Cabin Fever, as well as non-soundtrack work, his most recent release being Caught Up In The Moment. He was slated to appear in Ruggero Deodato's sequel to House On The Edge Of The Park next year.
Here's a sample of his work, "Now You're All Alone" from The Last House On The Left soundtrack:
David Alexander Hess: 1942 - 2011. May he rest in peace.
It's been a while since I've had time to screen a Nasty and I'm starting to get the itch. I'll write more soon, I promise. Until we meet again, it would be wise for us all to sing. It might keep the darkness away, so I suggest we do it as much as we can. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
Get up, kids! William "Maniac" Lustig and the rest of the good folks over at Blue Underground are unleashing Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 in select theatres in the US and Canada later this month for midnight showings! These are very limited engagements (one or two shows per theatre), so don't miss your chance to see it on the big screen.
I wish I was near Albuquerque, NM; Chicago, IL or San Francisco, CA: all three are having screenings on my birthday! I'm going to try to make it to the New Beverly for the October 22nd screening. Hope to see you there! So keep on the lookout, we don't want to lose each other in the crowd, and I'll keep a sharp eye out for you. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
POWs IN VIETNAM...STARVED IN CAPTIVITY...RELEASED WITH A TASTE FOR HUMAN FLESH.
DON'T SCREAM...YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE.
Original Italian title: Apocalypse Domani
Other alternate titles: Cannibals In The Streets, Invasion Of The Flesh Hunters
NTSC Running time: 96:07
Directed by Antonio Margheriti (as Anthony M. Dawson)
Story by Dardano Sacchetti (as Jimmy Gould)
Screenplay by Margheriti and Sacchetti (as Dawson and Gould)
Produced by Edmondo, Maurizio & Sandro Amati
Starring: John Saxon, Elizabeth Turner, Giovanni Lombardo Radice (as John Morghen), Cinzia De Carolis (as Cindy Hamilton), Tony King, Wallace Wilkinson, Ramiro Oliveros
Body Count: 25, plus a dog and a rat. (The dog was not actually harmed. The rat, we're not sure.)
Availability: Uncut Region 1 DVD available from Image Entertainment.
BBFC Status
Why it's a Nasty: Cannibalism!...and animal cruelty.
What was cut: A cut of two seconds to a rat that caught fire.
Current UK Status: Cannibal Apocalypse was awarded an 18 certificate on May 11, 2005 after the shot of the rat on fire had been excised. The same version was again awarded an 18 certificate on March 15, 2010.
Availability: 18 certified version available on Region 2 DVD and online from Optimum Releasing. Cannibal Apocalypse was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.
When sitting down to watch a film titled Cannibal Apocalypse, would you expect an allegory about the horrors of war and post-traumatic stress syndrome?
Because that's what you get.
We open in the jungles of Vietnam, where Norman Hopper (John Saxon) is leading a battalion into a Viet Cong base, where POWs Tommy Thompson (Tony King) and Charles Bukowski (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) are being held. When a Vietnamese woman catches fire and falls into the POW's holding pit, the two soldiers quickly tear her apart and feast upon her. Once the smoke clears, Hopper recognizes the two men and extends a hand to them, meaning to pull them out, but getting an armful of teeth...
And Hopper awakes from his nightmare next to his wife, Jane (Elizabeth Turner), a television host with serious concerns about her husband's well-being. She seeks out Dr. Phil Mendez (Ramiro Oliveros), who tells Jane that a) she should have married him instead of Hopper, and b) Hopper is better off than Bukowski and Thompson who are still in a mental institution. Or not, since Bukowski has just been granted a daypass out into the city.
Charlie wants to meet up with his good friend Hopper, have a few beers, discuss old times, but Norman isn't in the mood. In addition to his nightmares (in which Charlie features prominently), he's dealing with the girl next door, Mary (Cinzia De Carolis), a teenage nymphet who is in the midst of failing to seduce Norman when his old war buddy calls. Norman hangs up on Bukowski and seems about to give in to Mary's advances (shame on you, Norman!), but, as he later confesses to his wife, what he's really thinking is how much he'd like to take a bite out of Mary.
Bukowski heads to the movies, where he sits down for a screening of Umberto Lenzi's From Hell To Victory. He's enjoying his popcorn when the couple in front of him gets into a heavy makeout session. The girl's boyfriend is nibbling on her breasts, and Charlie flashes back to when he took a bite from the same part of that Vietnamese lady's anatomy. Unable to control himself, Bukowski leans forward and takes a healthy chunk from the girl's neck. Chased from the theatre, he holes up in a flea market and starts shooting people...
So begins Cannibal Apocalypse. It's brutal. It's violent. It's not for the faint of heart. There's all kinds of gunfire and flesh-eating, with a police captain trying to make sense of all the carnage throughout. When this Captain McCoy (Wallace Wilkinson) arrives on the scene of Bukowski's flea market standoff, he delivers a line you won't see in the movies anymore. "I don't care about his name! What's his background? Is he a subversive, a queer, a commie, a black?" It's apparent as we get to know him better that he's not a racist or a bigot, just a harsh-talking cop who wants things boiled down into neat little packages. Too bad he's not ready for a cannibal plague.
Made during the height of Italy's Cannibal Boom, a short-lived but impressive trend that saw most of its' films on the Nasties list, Cannibal Apocalypse took the flesh-eating out of the jungles and into the streets of Atlanta, where much of the film was shot. Instead of primitive tribes, the anthropophagists here are ordinary citizens, afflicted by a kind of rabies they picked up in 'Nam. Whether the result of chemical warfare or some other source, the film doesn't explore the cause. It doesn't need to. The soldiers who have returned home are cursed with the horrors of their time in the war, post-traumatic stress disorder made into a literal, physical ailment. Tommy and Charlie cannot help themselves, their need to eat their fellow man has overridden everything else in their lives. It's an intriguing idea, and one the film could have explored more deeply...if Margheriti and Sacchetti weren't so intent on fitting in as much carnage as possible. And boy, do they deliver!
There's plenty of names here that we'll be seeing again. Giovanni Lombardo Radice appears in three Nasties, we'll be seeing him again in Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox and Ruggero Deodato's House On The Edge Of The Park. John Saxon has a great supporting role in Dario Argento's Tenebre. And Dardano Sacchetti may be the King Of The Nasties, with screenplay credits on FIVE of the seventy-two (the others are The House By The Cemetery [see Video Nasty #3], The Beyond, Blood Bath, and Zombie Flesh Eaters, on which he went uncredited in order to give his wife a screen credit and facilitate further work). And in a bit of meta-fiction, actress May Heatherly (who also appears in Pieces) appears in Cannibal Apocalypse as Helen and in From Hell To Victory, the film Bukowski sees in the cinema. Spooky!
And while the BBFC may have loosened its' restrictions on the cinematic depiction of cannibalism, they are still not too keen on cruelty to animals. The two second shot shorn from this film takes place in the final reel, during a chase through the sewers, where Tommy blasts his flamethrower onto some rats, one of which scurries into the water upon being engulfed in flames. Did the rat survive? Most likely, as it jumps into the water, dousing the flames, and those are some resilient little fuckers. (Remember my little rat problem last year? Yeah, I wasn't too sad to see one catch fire, but if it survived, good on it.) Other than that short and insignificant shot, UK viewers can now easily catch this one...and I hope they do. This is a fun movie that had no trouble holding my attention.
It's a shame that John Saxon, who was rather disgusted by the concept but already contractually obligated to appear by the time he found out, has claimed to have never seen it and been totally okay with its' one-time UK ban. John, if you're reading this, I urge you to reconsider and give it a chance. Your performance was great, you did a terrific job of capturing Hopper's haunted, troubled psyche, especially at the end, and you should be proud to have Cannibal Apocalypse on your resume. Give it a shot. You won't be disappointed.
And that's it for now, my friends. I'll catch you soon enough, though probably not as soon as either of us would like. I've got some new projects percolating, including a trip through bloody darkness with a mad genius known only as The Phantom. I can't give you any details yet, it's super top secret, but you can rest assured that when the feral cat leaps from the burlap sack, it will land squarely on this page, claws outstretched...and hungry. Until next time, steer clear of quiet men in camouflage jackets. They're probably harmless...but they might also be wondering what you taste like. I'll think twice if they cross my path. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
After thinking, planning and researching for a very long time, this blog was begun one year ago today. While I am not as far along as I would have thought when I began, I am still proud to be doing this.
In one year, we've screened 17 films:
BLOOD FEAST
FACES OF DEATH
THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY
MADHOUSE
MARDI GRAS MASSACRE
BLOODY MOON
THE BOGEYMAN
REVENGE OF THE BOGEYMAN
DEATH TRAP
DON'T GO NEAR THE PARK
UNHINGED
THE WEREWOLF AND THE YETI
ANTHROPOPHAGUS THE BEAST
ABSURD
BLOOD RITES
THE BEAST IN HEAT
THE BURNING
and we've covered (in brief or in depth) a few others:
GIALLO
EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD
PIECES
So it's time to stop looking back and start looking forward. Here are a few of the things I've got planned for the second year of the Rebellion:
A look at a few films that didn't make the list, but were their own kind of Nasties:
MANIAC
THE NEW YORK RIPPER
THE EXORCIST
Plus, a special feature on an entire series (and homages to it): THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE!
(I had also been planning on a special screening of FOREST OF FEAR on September 11, 2011 as a tribute to Charles McCrann, but trouble obtaining an uncut print has doused my hopes for that.)
And, of course, we will continue to work our way through the DPP list. Coming up soon:
KILLER NUN
NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN
DELIRIUM
THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT
LATE NIGHT TRAINS
NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES
THE DRILLER KILLER
and more Video Nastiness than you can shake a severed arm at!
So thanks for reading, thanks for sticking with me, and most of all, thanks for existing.
My name's Justin. JustinCase.
PS - Find VCR Rebellion on Facebook and tell 'em Justin sent ya!
A BRUTAL HORRIFIC ACT MADE HIM KILL AND KILL AND KILL
IT WILL TAKE YOU FURTHER THAN FEAR.
GATHER AROUND THE CAMPFIRE TO DIE!
NTSC Running time: 91:22
Directed by Tony Maylam
Story by Harvey Weinstein, Tony Maylam & Brad Grey
Screenplay by Peter Lawrence & Bob Weinstein
Created and Produced by Harvey Weinstein
Horror Sequence Designer & Special Make-Up Effects by Tom Savini
Starring: Brian Matthews, Leah Ayers, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua & Lou David as Cropsy
Body Count: 10
Availability: Uncut Region 1 DVD from MGM
BBFC Status
Why it's a Nasty: Intense sequences of gore! There is at least one shot of blood on breasts, which the BBFC says is a big no-no.
What was cut: The original UK cinema release was cut by 10 seconds during the prostitute murder and the raft massacre. When the film was finally certified 18 for video on October 16, 1992, an additional 9 seconds were removed, cutting more of the raft massacre and removing the bloody boobs as mentioned above.
Current UK status: The uncut version of The Burning was certified 18 on August 14, 2002.
UK Availability: Uncut Region 2 DVD available from Blackhorse Entertainment.
The Burning was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.
A lot of early 1980s slasher films can boast having a future star or two. The Burning probably holds the record.
The very first production from Miramax films (notice those ever-present Weinstein Bros. up there?), it was the feature film debut of Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens and Holly Hunter. One of the co-writers wrote episodes of cartoons from my youth ("Thundercats" and "Silverhawks"). Another became head of Paramount Pictures. The director is still working, but mostly in documentaries. And Tom Savini...well, Tom was already horror royalty when The Burning went before the cameras, having just finished Friday The 13th and Maniac. Savini, in fact, turned down Friday The 13th Part 2 to work on The Burning. (Tom was not happy at the lack of continuity between F13 one and two. I don't blame him.) Praise Jebus that Tom felt that way. The Burning may be his best work...which is saying a lot, considering the man once orchestrated the obliteration of his own head via shotgun. It is Savini's talent and the freedom he was given with his setpieces that landed The Burning on the Video Nasties list, the only film released by a "major" studio to be given the "honor" (the US and UK video releases were distributed by Thorn/EMI, then a major player in the film market...but not for too long afterwards).
The Setup:
Camp Blackfoot, 1976: Five teenage boys, fed up with the cruel treatment meted out by Cropsy, the groundskeeper/caretaker, decide to play a vicious prank to even the score. But it all goes horribly wrong when the shack, the rest of the camp, and Cropsy himself are consumed by flames. Doused by a river, but very much alive, Cropsy spends five years in a burn unit...and picks up a prostitute as soon as he gets out. Too bad she never learned her manners. Cropsy butchers her when she expresses disgust with his malformed face.
1981: Up the river a ways from the ruins of Camp Blackfoot, Todd (Brian Matthews) and Michelle (Leah Ayres) have their hands full, as counselors to a wild group of teens at yet another camp. We meet and get to know several of the kids: Alfred (Brian Backer), a voyeuristic loner; Woodstock (Fisher Stevens), a too-skinny worrywart; Dave (Jason Alexander), the wisecracker who seems to be friends with everyone; Eddie (Ned Eisenberg), self-described ladies' man; Glazer (Larry Joshua), a blustering bully; Sally (Carrick Glenn), Glazer's sort-of girlfriend and the object of Alfred's repressed desire; Karen (Carolyn Houlihan), Eddie's would-be girlfriend.
Unlike a lot of summercamp slasher films, the kids in The Burning are for the most part a likable bunch and they seem to be having a good time at camp (Compare this bunch to the kids in Sleepaway Camp, who are all mean and stupid). But when our group of older kids take a canoe trip downriver, they end up near the ruins of Camp Blackfoot and enter Cropsy's domain...
The original UK video release was not based on the UK X-certified version. Nor the US R-rated cut. Thorn/EMI's original UK video release was "accidentally" unrated and uncut. And seeing as the violence is exceptionally brutal (compare The Burning to Friday The 13th, there is almost no gore in the latter), it's not surprising that notice was taken. The film's centerpiece is the "Raft Massacre", a bravura sequence in which FIVE kids meet their ends at the hands of Cropsy and his bigass garden shears in the space of thirty seconds. I can't think of another slasher film that even attempts such a thing - for the most part, slasher killers wait until their victims are by themselves, or occupied with an attractive member of the opposite sex and oblivious to who might be sneaking up behind them. It's an amazing sequence, and the main reason why the film is held in high regard by horror fans who have seen it. Savini held nothing back on this film: He created some of his bloodiest and most memorable effects sequences for this production, and the Raft Massacre is the pinnacle of them all.
And since we've covered dead teenagers, let's move on to the other staple of the slasher film, gratuitous nudity! Almost all of the boy's asses are seen at one point or another (you might even spy some between-the-legs balls!). Early in the film, one girl steps into an outdoor shower, always an ominous fixture in horror films since 1960's Psycho. Our view is strictly shoulders and up at first, holding long enough to make us think this will be a G-rated shower...until the camera zooms out for no reason other than to put the girl's breasts on the screen, then zooms back in before anything actually happens. Now that's gratuitous! There's something so charming about that kind of cinematic behaviour. The only thing I can think of to improve it would be to do the same with the male characters as well, even out that playing field a bit.
The Burning also has something most slasher films lack: at least one strong male figure. The slasher film is usually focused on a female character who is left to defeat the villain. In this case, it is a male who delves into the monster's lair to wage the final battle...which leads to a jarringly clumsy moment. In what is intended to be a standard slasher moment - the final reel "reveal" of a corpse as yet undiscovered by anyone in the film - our hero turns to see what is meant to be the dead body of a girl killed off by Cropsy halfway through the picture. What's wrong is that the character wasn't meant to be making any kind of discovery at that point. It was decided in postproduction that he should encounter the corpse. So what he sees is a freezeframe taken from the murder setpiece, poorly cropped with a black matte. You can still see the trees behind her, even though her "body" is supposedly underground. A shoddy, inept moment in what is otherwise a very well-executed piece of horror cinema.
For best results, kill the lights, cuddle up under a blanket with someone attractive, and turn up the volume as you watch this one. Keep a window open, too, so the ambient sounds of the night intrude. It will keep you on edge. You never know if Cropsy might be lurking outside, garden shears at the ready. Don't say I didn't warn you.
It's been almost a year since I started this endeavour, and I must say that I'm a bit disappointed with my pace. That's okay, though, because I also like savouring the experience. And if you find yourself in upstate New York, avoid the ruins of burned-out summer camps. There might be a burned-up madman lying in wait. Heed my warning. I sure will. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
HORRIFYING EXPERIENCES IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE S.S.!
Original Italian title: La Bestia In Calore
Alternate titles: SS Hell Camp, Horrifying Experiments Of The SS Last Days, S.S. Experiment Camp 2
NTSC Running time: 90:00 +/- 5 minutes. (An explanation for this wildly vague running time is contained in the article below. Most sources quote the length at 86 minutes, so that's about right.)
Directed by Luigi Batzella (as Ivan Kathansky)
Written by Luigi Batzella (as Ivan Kathansky), Dialogue by Lorenzo Artale
Produced by Roberto Perez Moreno
Starring: Macha Magall, Salvatore Baccaro (as Sal Boris), Gino Turini (as John Braun), and a whole lotta naked people!
Body Count: 23 one-on-one murders, with two extended (and bloodless) battle sequences netting approximately 23 kills apiece, for a total of 69!
Naked People: 11 - 7 women and 4 men have full-frontal nude scenes.
Availability: Uncut Region 1 DVD from Media Blasters under the title SS Hell Camp.
BBFC Status
Why it's a Nasty: Nazis, rape, torture, nudity, gore, sexualized violence. Did I mention the sexualized violence?
What was cut: Nothing.
Current UK Status: The Beast In Heat has never been submitted for cinema or video classification. It remains banned in the UK
The Beast In Heat was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.
Welcome to the wonderful, twisted world of Nazisploitation.
Dr. Kratsch (Macha Magall) is an SS officer and "scientist". Her latest discovery: a strange serum that turns (men? apes? Either way, it doesn't matter) into raving, horny mongoloids. She has one caged in her "lab". He's big. He's hairy. He's naked. And his master loves giving him naked women to play with.
That is how the film begins: Dr. Kratsch, over the objections of her colleague (who we never see again, she probably had him killed), gives her pet a girl to "play" with. As soon as the unfortunate girl (and the audience) sees the monster (Salvatore Baccaro), she tries to get away...but no dice there, chickie. Shoved into the cage, she is enthusiastically raped by the rapacious hulk, giving all assembled the show of virility that Dr. Kratsch had promised. The doctor approaches a male officer who is observing. She sticks her hand in his shirt, asking if he is excited. Upon his affirmative, she slaps his face and chastises him: Nazis are not supposed to get excited about anything, according to her. And, as if to show off her hypocrisy, she then approaches a female officer, who is also very excited, and they share a long, open-mouthed kiss. Apparently it's only the women who are allowed to be aroused by all that rape. Go figure.
Scenes like this are why the film is so notorious.
But before you run right out to find it, a word of fair warning: The bulk of this film is taken up with scenes from Quando Suona La Campana (When The Bell Tolls), another film Batzella directed 7 years earlier. It's standard war movie stuff: soldiers, resistance fighters, lots of battle scenes where people who have been machinegunned at close range clutch their chests and fall over without a drop of blood spilled. Only the brutal, bloody lab scenes were filmed for The Beast In Heat, the rest is wartime melodrama...not that there aren't a few thrills, like the scene where a German soldier rips an infant from its' mother's arms, tosses it in the air, and treats it to a volley of machine gun fire. Poignant.
The accepted estimate is that about 40 minutes of new footage was added to create The Beast In Heat, but I can't vouch for that. It actually seemed like a bit less, but I wasn't able to tell. The DVD I viewed, which is almost undoubtedly an uncut print (thank goodness), did not have a counter on it. Score one for VHS, which has its' time display in the machine, not on the tape. Ever notice how "modern technology" is business slang for "craftier ways to screw the customer"? But I digress. It is these sequences in the lab that make the film worth seeing. Not surprisingly, they are also why the film is controversial. We've all seen war movies, and they're not all Saving Private Ryan or We Were Soldiers. Most of them are boring as hell. When The Bell Tolls isn't bad, but it's nothing special, either. Resistance fighters kill soldiers. Soldiers rape and kill resistance fighters. There is one sequence that deserves special mention:
Don Vincenzo (Brad Harris) has been collaborating with the resistance, yet he is conflicted about the violence involved. Towards the end of the picture, when soldiers storm his church in an attempt to extract information, Don Vincenzo has had enough. He resists, engaging in fisticuffs with his uninvited guests because he hopes to save their female hostage. In a film where literally dozens of people have already been casually gunned down, Nazis armed with firearms fight a priest with one hand on their guns before leaving, routed, at the arrival of Drago (Gino Turini), our mustachioed Italian hero. Wait, what?
There also seems to be a question of what the director's real name was. He used several pseudonyms, which was common, but while most folks who engage in the practice leave little doubt as to which name is the genuine article, this man either wasn't talking...or no one knows enough about him. Let's look at what we know. Born in San Sperate, Sardinia in 1924, our man made 15 films as a director, 20 as an actor. His film career ended in 1980, but he lived another 28 years until he died from Parkinson's disease at the age of 84. Some claim his real name to be Luigi Batzella, others claim Paolo Solvay, which has that smoother, shorter feel common to family names in Sardinia. For his true name, my money's on Solvay, but for the purposes of this article, I'm going to stick with Batzella. A guy named Solvay would make sensitive movies about love in times of strife. A guy named Batzella might punch your mom in the face while he pisses in your soup. And isn't that why I watched The Beast In Heat?
Oh yes, it is. And when we're not watching bloodless battle sequences or beautiful countryside, it's full-blown sex and violence! That's why I bought a ticket. Hell, I think that's why anyone who's ever watched this thing bought a ticket. And when it's time for the goods, they are delivered with style. A naked woman is tied to a table, her torso burned by a heated bucket, and then a ferocious pair of guinea pigs eat her flesh (There are no typographical errors in the previous sentence). A nude man is strung up by his heels, dunked furiously in a trough of water, and whipped mercilessly...all at the same time. When Dr. Kratsch has three naked male rebels tied up for her own personal use, one of them calls her disgusting and "nothing more than a bitch in heat!" Which brings to mind the obvious question, who is the real beast? The monster...or the creator? The answer here, I think, is both. Kratsch cuts the man's dick off (good for the films budget, but unfortunate for the audience, this happens offscreen), taking sadistic pleasure in it. Her creation, meanwhile, is busy raping another naked chick. The next effect is the best, most revolting, scene: The monster tears the woman's pubic hair off and eats it...all in a graphic close up. I truly think that the only reason this attack is shown and the castration is not was due to budgetary reasons. Batzella had already shown he wasn't afraid to put some cock on the screen, and I applaud him for it. But the cost of creating a fake, somewhat realistic, severed penis, is prohibitive compared to asking an actress to shave and daubing her with some fake blood.
So how does it all turn out for Dr. Kratsch and her creation? You'll have to watch it to find out. Yes, I am recommending that you track down and watch The Beast In Heat. I love a film that can make you laugh and cringe at the same time. I love movies that aren't afraid to handle taboo subjects in irreverent ways. And I love movies that don't pretend to be anything but what they are. The gore effects are decent, not great. The sex is terribly simulated, some of the worst I've ever seen (Attention Nazi guy, you do know that you can't have sex with your pants covering your wang, right?). The dialogue is WAY better than anything you would expect, low on camp, high on wartime philosophy. And Salvatore Baccaro has to be seen to be believed. Bravo to this man, whose acromegaly cut his life short in 1984 at the age of 39. But what a way to be remembered! (For a glimpse of this striking man in a more realistic setting, you can watch for Salvatore playing himself, a humble flower vendor, in Dario Argento's masterful giallo Profondo Rosso.)
That's all for now, kids. I love hanging out with you and it's always a blast. Until next time, I'll leave you with my usual caution. Stay the fuck away from Nazis. I didn't need to tell you that, right? Well, I did it anyway. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
Happy birthday to Lucio Fulci, Godfather of Gore, Il Maestro, and Gatekeeper of the 7th Door.
He passed away on March 13, 1996 from complications of his diabetes...but anyone who has seen his films is aware that the dead don't die. FULCI LIVES!!!
So stay out of The House By The Cemetery, or you too will know Fear In The City Of The Living Dead and learn what lies in wait for us in The Beyond. Heed this warning. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
